Thursday, December 29, 2011

The 800 Pound Gorilla in the Room

Had a good laugh at a couple of knuckleheads sitting at their keyboard the other day. One of the blogs with a more national readership had noted that the CBJ were having a less than stellar year (I can't find the link, incompetence is my only excuse). And these guys got on the comments and said essentially "blow the whole thing up, and the next city who gets them will have something to build from". Which for someone who is sitting in front of a search engine is a pretty stunning admission of ignorance and laziness. In this article, the Columbus Business Journal notes that the last step in the agreement to purchase Nationwide Arena, approval by the Franklin County Commissioners, was achieved, and the whole deal is moving forward. Bad news to the knuckleheads who want to issue their opinions on the CBJ without doing any work. There isn't going to be any next city. This is our problem to deal with and we have to find our way out of this mess.

One thing I keep forgetting as part of this whole picture of a disastrous season and the apparent apathy by management and ownership towards changes to attempt to rectify the disaster; that is the role of the new minority owner.

In some sort of mind warp, I keep forgetting that as part of the Arena deal, Nationwide Insurance is plopping down a cool $58 million to become a significant new minority owner in the Columbus Blue Jackets organization. Could it be that the apparent apathy towards firing coaches and/or General Managers is in reality waiting for this new minority owner to come on board? Will they want to have an influence on the direction hockey operations chooses to go? One would think that with the current under performing squad, changes are in the offing. How big of a say will collective ownership want in that process?

The paper work is supposed to be signed on January 30 to make the arena deal final. Shortly thereafter, the organization will be acquiring a new minority owner. What that means in the long run should be interesting to see. Over the short term, waiting until January 30 before sweeping changes are made is not really waiting for that long of a period in a season that is already lost. In fact, the closer to the trade deadline you can wait before moving assets will only raise the prices you are able to get for those assets.